WRIISC-Women, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 3801 Miranda Avenue, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA.
Rehabilitation Service, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 3801 Miranda Avenue, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA.
Neuroinformatics. 2024 Oct;22(4):573-589. doi: 10.1007/s12021-024-09681-7. Epub 2024 Jul 11.
Diffusion properties from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) are exquisitely sensitive to white matter abnormalities incurred during traumatic brain injury (TBI), especially for those patients with chronic post-TBI symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, fatigue, etc. The evaluation of structural and functional connectivity using DTI has become a promising method for identifying subtle alterations in brain connectivity associated with TBI that are otherwise not visible with conventional imaging. This study assessed whether TBI patients with (n = 17) or without (n = 16) chronic symptoms (TBIcs/TBIncs) exhibit any changes in structural connectivity (SC) and mean fractional anisotropy (mFA) of intra- and inter-hemispheric connections when compared to a control group (CG) (n = 13). Reductions in SC and mFA were observed for TBIcs compared to CG, but not for TBIncs. More connections were found to have mFA reductions than SC reductions. On the whole, SC is dominated by ipsilateral connections for all the groups after the comparison of contralateral and ipsilateral connections. More contra-ipsi reductions of mFA were found for TBIcs than TBIncs compared to CG. These findings suggest that TBI patients with chronic symptoms not only demonstrate decreased global and regional mFA but also reduced structural network connectivity.
来自扩散张量成像（DTI）的扩散特性对创伤性脑损伤（TBI）引起的白质异常非常敏感，特别是对于那些有慢性 post-TBI 症状（如头痛、头晕、疲劳等）的患者。使用 DTI 评估结构和功能连接已成为一种很有前途的方法，可以识别与 TBI 相关的脑连接的细微改变，而这些改变在常规成像中是不可见的。本研究评估了有（n=17）或没有（n=16）慢性症状（TBIcs/TBIncs）的 TBI 患者与对照组（CG）（n=13）相比，其脑内和脑间连接的结构连接（SC）和平均分数各向异性（mFA）是否有任何变化。与 CG 相比，TBIcs 的 SC 和 mFA 减少，但 TBIncs 没有。与 CG 相比，TBIcs 有更多的连接显示 mFA 减少而不是 SC 减少。总的来说，在比较对侧和同侧连接后，所有组的 SC 主要由同侧连接主导。与 CG 相比，TBIcs 的 contra-ipsi 减少 mFA 比 TBIncs 更多。这些发现表明，有慢性症状的 TBI 患者不仅表现出整体和区域 mFA 的降低，而且还表现出结构网络连接的减少。
